South Korean media said Sunday a senior North Korean diplomat is headed to Finland to meet with former U.S. diplomats, this after a North Korean delegation wrapped up three days of talks with Swedish diplomats that could lead to a possible meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Yonhap news agency reports Choe Kang Il, North Korea’s deputy director-general for North American affairs, was seen at Beijing Capital International Airport before boarding a flight to Finland.

Diplomatic sources say former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Kathleen Stephens will be among the former U.S. diplomats who will meet with Choe. The North Korean official is also expected to talk with security experts from Seoul.

Yonhap says the diplomats at the Finnish talks will “exchange opinions onthe denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and an inter-Korean summit slated for late April and a U.S.-North Korea summit expected in May.”

​Talks in Sweden

On Friday, Swedish U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog said his country was trying to help de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula by hosting talks. Sweden is one of the few Western powers to have an embassy in Pyongyang. There, it provides diplomatic services for not only Swedes, but also U.S., Canadian and Australian citizens.

“The security situation on the peninsula is one of the most pressing issues on the world agenda right now, and if Sweden can play a part in de-escalation there, this is what we’re trying to do,” Skoog told reporters in New York.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven met briefly in Stockholm Friday, but Skoog and Lofven’s spokesman would not disclose what the two officials discussed.

Skoog added, however, the talks in Stockholm would hopefully help “create a good environment for such a meeting” and declined to comment when asked if Sweden would host a meeting of the U.S. and North Korean leaders.

“We just want to be helpful in pursuing a de-escalation on the peninsula,” he said.

​Emphasis on denuclearization

The majority of Ri’s time was spent with Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom. At the conclusion of the talks, Sweden’s foreign ministry released a statement saying Wallstrom emphasized to the North Korean official “the need for North Korea to dismantle its nuclear arms and missiles program in line with several [U.N.] Security Council resolutions.”

The statement also said the two officials discussed “opportunities and challenges for continued diplomatic efforts.”

U.S. President Donald Trump reaffirmed his plan to meet by the end of May with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to negotiate Pyongyang’s nuclear program, the White House said Friday. In a phone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Trump expressed “cautious optimism” over recent developments regarding North Korea.

The White House said the two leaders discussed preparations for their upcoming negotiations with North Korea and agreed “concrete actions, not words” were key to any denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea, however, has not officially confirmed the meeting and no specific time or venue has been set.

South Korea’s senior press secretary Yoon Young-chan said Moon pledged to “create an atmosphere for the successful opening of the U.S.-North Korean summit” when he meets with the North Korean leader in April.

South Korea said Moon also talked by phone Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who expressed the possibility of having a North Korea-Japan dialogue. A South Korean spokesman said the two leaders agreed to strengthen their cooperation to work together and with the United States to bring about the denuclearization of North Korea.

Earlier, Im Jong-seok, Moon’s chief of staff, said South Korea is seeking high-level talks this month with North Korea to prepare for the inter-Korea summit in April. He also said Moon could meet with Trump after the inter-Korea summit, but before Trump holds his planned meeting with the North Korean leader in May.
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Visiting the doctor to get your blood pressure checked might be stressful and time consuming, but what if you could get a check-up at your regular barbershop instead? That’s the idea behind a recent study in Los Angeles, where pharmacists are working with 52 barbershops to try to help African-American men, who have higher rates of high blood pressure than other ethnic groups. Faiza Elmasry has the story, narrated by Faith Lapidus.
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Maryam Durrani is a child prodigy who wrote her first book at the age of 13, making her one of the youngest authors in America. But as VOA’s Niala Mohammad reports, the hijab-wearing teen defies stereotypes associated with Muslims and girls.
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Two U.S. senators – one Republican and one Democrat – have pledged greater support for a U.S.-based Iranian-American group that calls for replacing Iran’s Islamist leadership with a democratic, secular government.

Republican Senator John Boozman and Democratic Senator Ben Cardin spoke to the Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC) on Thursday, as the group held an annual luncheon to celebrate the Nowruz holiday, or Persian New Year, at the Russell Senate Office Building.

In remarks to the gathering, Cardin, of Maryland, promised to keep working with OIAC to, as he put it, “plan strategies to help the people of Iran escape the oppressive regime they currently have and return Iran to its roots, to its proud history, so it can have a bright future.” He said his membership on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations gives him the ability to promote causes, such as protecting Iranians’ human rights from what he called “violations of international norms” by the Iranian government.

Speaking later at the event, Boozman, of Arkansas, promised to be “very supportive” of the change that OIAC seeks in Iran. “I understand the importance of this, and I’m committed to helping in any way that I can,” he said.

OIAC is a nonprofit group that seeks to mobilize Iranian-Americans to support what it calls the Iranian people’s “struggle for democratic change” and a “non-nuclear government.”

It is allied to exiled Iranian dissident movement Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), which leads the France-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and advocates the “overthrow” of “religious dictatorship” in Iran.

Islamist clerics have led the nation since its 1979 Islamic Revolution.

‘Moment of real opportunity’

Former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, an MEK supporter who chairs the nonprofit group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), also spoke at the luncheon and urged the two senators and congressional staffers in attendance to build relationships with the dissident group, which he said leads an “organized” opposition that played a role in Iran’s recent anti-government protests and that is ready to serve as a new Iranian government with U.S. help.

In January, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Iran’s “enemies” of provoking a week of nationwide anti-government demonstrations that began in late December and posed the biggest challenge to his rule in years.

Protesters chanted anti-government slogans and some engaged in violent confrontations with security forces, but were not seen professing loyalty to opposition groups.

“This is a moment of real opportunity,” Lieberman said. “If we act together: Congress and the [Trump] administration, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives and even a few independents and moderates, then next Nowruz we are going … to celebrate the end of the Islamic republic of Iran.”

Former Marine Corps Commandant U.S. General James Conway, another MEK supporter, adopted a more cautious tone in his remarks to the group, saying history shows that efforts to change another country’s system of government from within have failed more than succeeded.

“It’s not uncommon to see that happen in nations, and also to see [an attempted revolution] put down very quickly especially by a dictatorial government,” he said.

Moral support urged

Conway said a successful uprising in Iran would require several components, such as a critical mass of people who draw growing numbers of protesters into the streets and who are seen as patriots by the rest of society rather than as revolutionaries. He said a “recognizable figure” would have to lead the movement – ideally, in his view, an army general who could seize communication centers, government buildings and airfields.

The retired U.S. general urged the Trump administration to continue to express moral support for the protesters on Iran’s streets.

“If another Iranian government does come about, [the U.S. should] quickly recognize it and hope that other nations will follow suit,” he said.

Critics of MEK in exiled Iranian communities disparage the group for its former alliance with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and for enforcing what they say is a cult-like discipline on its members.

MEK carried out bombings against the Iranian shah’s government in the 1970s and later against Iran’s post-revolution Islamist rulers in the 1980s and 1990s. The United States designated MEK as a terrorist organization in 1997, citing those attacks, including 1970s-era bombings that killed several U.S. defense contractors.

The U.S. removed its terrorist label from MEK in 2012, citing the group’s public renunciation of violence, the lack of any confirmed militant attacks by group in more than a decade and its cooperation in the closure of its paramilitary base in Iraq.

MEK had spent years lobbying and securing the support of prominent American politicians to press for the removal of the terrorism designation.

Guita Aryan and Kaveh Jamshidi of VOA’s Persian Service contributed to this report.

 
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With Rex Tillerson’s abrupt firing as U.S. secretary of state Tuesday, the focus is now on President Donald Trump’s choice to take his place, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and what this change would mean for U.S. foreign policy.

“He had a lot of ‘face time’ with President Trump. He impressed Trump, is a loyalist. So you’ll have a loyal foreign policy out of the State Department,”  Ariel Cohen of the Atlantic Council said. “You also have somebody with an intelligence and military background.”

WATCH: Under Pompeo Analysts Expect More Reliance on US Military Strength

Congressional confirmation hearings for the secretary of state nominee will be held next month, with Pompeo possibly taking the helm of the State Department just weeks after the Trump administration agreed to enter into talks with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Days ago, in an emotional farewell at the State Department briefing room, Tillerson cited what he views as one of the achievements of his tenure, the success of the U.S.-led maximum pressure campaign of sanctions on North Korea.

“First, working with allies, we exceeded the expectations of almost everyone with the DPRK maximum pressure campaign,” Tillerson said Tuesday, just hours after his reported firing.

Pompeo and Pyongyang

Tillerson’s designated replacement, Pompeo, has often taken a hardline approach to North Korea, emphasizing the existential threat Pyongyang’s nuclear missiles pose to cities on the U.S mainland.

“We have a threat from flash points that something could spark and have a conventional war, right, wholly apart from the issues we talk about with ICBMs and nuclear,” Pompeo told the Senate Intelligence Committee last May.

The CIA director has been loyal to the president, and after Trump’s surprise announcement last week that he is willing to meet with North Korea’s Kim, he went on several news shows to voice his support for the decision.

“President Trump isn’t doing this for theater. He’s going to solve a problem,” Pompeo told Fox News Sunday. 

“Kim Jong Un now has committed to stopping nuclear testing, stopping missile tests, allowing exercises to go forward, something that has been incredibly contentious in the past,” he said, calling Pyongyang’s commitments “real achievements.”

Hardline on Iran

The former Republican congressman has been a vocal critic of the landmark Iran nuclear deal ever since it was signed in 2015.

“The (deal) can perhaps delay Iran’s nuclear weapons program for a few years. … Conversely, it has virtually guaranteed that Iran will have the freedom to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons at the end of the commitment,” Pompeo wrote in opposition to the deal while serving as a U.S. representative.

In 2016 he tweeted, “I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.” His personal Twitter account has since been deactivated.

Based on his past tough statements on North Korea, China and Iran, many analysts say Pompeo, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, will likely rely more on U.S. military strength, and be less supportive of international agreements than Tillerson.

Pompeo has made statements advocating “regime change” in Iran and North Korea.

“I think Pompeo is more of a hawk, more of a Trumpian, more of this sort of new wave of what I would call American nationalism, and we see countries becoming more nationalistic all over the world,” Atlantic Council’s Cohen said.

And some worry that Pompeo’s confirmation makes it more likely the United States will pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, and subsequently jeopardize any diplomatic efforts with Pyongyang.

“There is no way in the world that throwing out a valid agreement (the Iran nuclear deal) that is working would increase your negotiating leverage with North Korea,” said Thomas Countryman, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation. “Rather, it should cause the North Korean leader to ask himself, How can I sign any agreement with the president who’s prepared to break every previous agreement?’”

Countryman told VOA he is concerned about the shake-up at the State Department, because he believes Tillerson has good instincts on foreign policy and was a moderating influence on Trump.

Pompeo on Russian meddling

When it comes to Russia, Pompeo has gone further than Trump in calling out Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“It’s pretty clear about what took place here about Russian involvements in efforts to hack information and to have an impact on American democracy,” Pompeo told a Senate panel at his confirmation hearing to become the CIA director in January 2017.

But he also met with the heads of Russia’s three intelligence services during their unprecedented visit to Washington earlier this year.

Pompeo has said Russian interference had no impact on the outcome of the 2016 race for the White House, which is not something U.S. intelligence agencies say they are even qualified to assess.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has signed legislation that encourages U.S. officials to travel to Taiwan to meet their counterparts and vice versa, a move that has angered China.

The president signed the Taiwan Travel Act late Friday.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Saturday that the self-ruled island’s government would “continue to uphold the principles of mutual trust and mutual benefit to maintain close contact and communication with the U.S.”

U.S. and Taiwan officials already travel back and forth between the two countries, but the visits are usually kept low profile to avoid offending China.

China considers Taiwan a wayward province and seeks the island’s reunification with China.

After Trump signed the legislation, the Chinese embassy said in a statement that clauses in the travel act “severely violate the one-China principle, the political foundation of the China-U.S. relationship.”

China said the Taiwan Travel Act violated U.S. commitments not to restore direct official contacts with Taiwan that were severed when Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
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Mohammed Fawad Mohammadi survived the war in his native Afghanistan, where he served as an interpreter for U.S. military forces.

Now he is in a hospital, with part of his leg amputated after a man in Oregon hit Mohammadi with his car and then accelerated at him again.

Perry George Nicolopoulos was indicted late Thursday on 16 charges, including attempted murder, in the attack in Lincoln City, according to court records. Mohammadi’s wife and their year-old son narrowly escaped injury in the attack that shocked the coastal tourist town.

Police have found no evidence that Nicolopoulos, whose last known address was Tacoma, Washington, committed a hate crime, said Lt. Jerry Palmer of the Lincoln City Police Department.

“We don’t know his mindset. We have no idea what his motivations were, or his mental state, other than that he was under the influence,” Palmer said. One of the charges Nicolopoulos is facing is drunken driving.

More investigation urged

A group that monitors anti-Muslim discrimination and hate crimes, however, is calling for a more thorough investigation.

“Given the unprecedented rise in anti-Muslim hate incidents in recent years … we urge law enforcement authorities to look into possibility of a bias motive in this,” Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said.

Mohammadi served in combat zones with U.S. forces.

“He survived that, and came here and had this happen,” Hooper said.

Car rammed three times

The attack happened March 6 in the parking lot of a Walgreens drug store off coastal Highway 101.

First, Nicolopoulos’ car hit Mohammadi’s Toyota Prius. Mohammadi and his wife, Nelab Sarabi, got out to inspect the damage and exchange insurance information, leaving their son inside, when Nicolopoulos drove into their car again, according to an affidavit.

This time, Mohammadi was hit, and was pinned by Nicolopoulos’ car to his own car door. Nicolopoulos’ car reversed and crashed into the Prius again before driving away.

Police found Nicolopoulos’ license plate embedded in the Prius.

“We’re used to seeing crashes, but for an individual to deliberately, for whatever reason, to decide to use his vehicle as a weapon makes everybody wonder what this person’s mindset was and what drove him to do this,” Palmer said.

Mohammadi, who was flown to a hospital in Portland, described seeing his attacker.

“The airbag was in his face, but he was very relaxed. At that time, I thought, ‘This is an attack. It’s not an accident,’” Mohammadi told the Lake Oswego Review, a newspaper in the Portland suburb where he works in a food market.

Leg amputated

Doctors amputated Mohammadi’s leg about 6 inches below the knee, according to a GoFundMe page raising funds for the family. As of Friday, more than half of the $100,000 goal had been raised. Many of the commenters thanked Mohammadi for his service to the United States and wished him a speedy recovery.

Nicolopoulos, 68, is in the county jail on $1 million bail. He has been assigned a court-appointed attorney, who did not respond to a phone call.

Nicolopoulos has had numerous run-ins with the law in Washington state, including a case in which he pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in 2001 and another in which he pleaded guilty to malicious mischief in 1996.
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